HOLLAND CODE

IRA

Careers:

Aerospace Engineer

  • Interested in contributing to the exploration space and development of human habitation

Physicist

  • I am interested in this field, follows

Biochemist/Biophysicist

  • I am interested in how we can blend biology with other fields of sciences  e.g cybernetics

Cas Reflection (Creativity) – LO3 & LO4

In ‘Sumo Robotics’, as a whole group, our progress has been rather shaky, despite having veteran coders in our circle in addition to the collaborative efforts of all the members, we have come across many problems that have hindered our activity, ranging from hardware faults in components to software issues in the code. Due to the reoccurring problem, most of us had lost the motivation to stay on task during the activity sessions. However, we did not want to quit the activity due to our personal interest, thus some of us came together and collectively brainstormed projects/new methods (LO3) of which we could use to substitute our current project whilst keeping the main goal in mind, suggesting ideas and building upon other peoples proposals. We settled upon restarting the project, however, this time we will use manufactured ‘Sumo Robotics’ kits in order to avoid the main hardware issues. We had initially lost hope in the project as no one was able to produce a working product, but we continued the activity (LO4), even though we found it very difficult to make the original product, we wanted to preserve the original idea so we all gathered to discuss how we could retain this while still keeping it as a challenge. Hopefully we are able to continue this club without the plague of issues which we experienced previously.

Political Cartoon

This political cartoon depicts a version of society whereby feminism is antagonised, and where the advocacy of such social movements is seen as offensive and thus is not uncommon for it to be addressed in a derogatory manner. 

The cartoon displays two young adolescent boys, where one is insulting the other by addressing his father as a feminist, as shown in the monologue at the bottom. The casual setting of the advert, an ordinary neighbourhood, in addition to the fact that the boys are of a young age, show that the usage of the term ‘feminism’ as a means of insult is normalized and understood by the bulk of society. Conveying the message that feminism has become a subject viewed in a negative light regardless of its original intentions, as the boys, whom likely are not mature enough to fully grasp the concept, are blindly using the phrase. In addition to this, the monologue shows that the boy stutters before addressing the other boy’s father as a feminist, this shows that some degree of thought was involved before deciding upon using the word as an insult, connotating that the subject is very sensitive and is a heavy insult which is possible viewed as taboo by society.

Political cartoons such as these, show us how gender roles or identities may be interpreted in different eras, cultures or demographics, and thus allowing us to see how these roles came to be. Someone who is not well-versed in the field may just adopt and follow the mindset of the norm, these cartoons allow for such individuals to view the situation through different perspectives, and thus inform them of what may be the truth. Such as in the cartoon above, the subject of feminism has gained a negative reputation due to blind usage and misinformed individuals, the cartoon addresses this by presenting the raw foundation behind the belief and thus showing the irrational justification behind the perspective society has on feminism.

Although this particular advert is not very comedic, humour can greatly affect the reach and effectiveness of political cartoons/propaganda, and thus the ability of it to convey its message or the truth. Humour in political cartoons is often used to ridicule beliefs or to make light of otherwise sensitive topics, the comedic value in the cartoons can lead people to prioritise the humourous content, thus causing truths, or lies, to spread further due to word of mouth, whilst unconsciously adopted the ideals of the political cartoon. This is extremely effective at spreading beliefs and truths, however, is only temporary as it can be easily dismantled due to the lack of justification, the social changes stemmed from humour is often short-lived as society will move on to the next trend, as such ‘political’ statement is often rather viewed as pop culture, as opposed to social issues.

Without pre-existing knowledge or context, it is difficult to understand many political cartoons, including the one above. If an uninformed individual were to come across this political cartoon, they would not be able to understand the situation within the cartoon, much less the message it is attempting to convey. They would not even be able to tell whether what the boy is saying, is a compliment, or an insult. Political cartoons which address the current affairs or social/political situation, which most are, cannot be understood without political or historical context. Only those that paint a black and white picture and does not elaborate on the current belief, can be understood with the lack of context.